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This is a modern supercomputer. It is actually a cluster of numerous computers that are linked together to make them far more powerful.
Click on image for full size Courtesy of UCAR Digital Image Library

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Using Computers for Science

In the last decades, computers have become a normal part of life. They are used to send e-mail, write a school report or look up recipes. They are used to keep track of the balance in your bank account. They are used to deliver money to you at an ATM, crunch the latest baseball statistics and deliver phone calls to the right residence. They might even be used to help drive your car!

As much as computers have become a part of our daily lives, they have also become an integral part of modern science. They are essential in helping scientists to understand the world around us. Computers have changed the face of science so that scientists are no longer constrained to doing just experiment-based or theoretical research. Now scientists can enter results and data into a computer and the computer, utilizing mathematics and abiding by the physical laws, can recreate a virtual physical world right on the computer screen.

Supercomputers have especially revolutionized the scientific process and are used in everything from meteorology to molecular biology to astronomy to environmental science.

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